Now a team
at the University of Bengal in India, led by Dhruba Dasgupta, has
become the latest to cause a stir, reporting that they have observed
what possibly appears to be superconductivity at 313 K.

The
researchers used lead zirconium titanate (PZT) -- a common material
used in capacitors and other electronics -- for the work. They
first cut a 2 cm × 2 mm piece of a commercial disks of the
material. They then stripped away the existing silver coating
and coated the piece with 4000 Angstroms of aluminum via vacuum
evaporation.

The conductivity was then probed along the
sample. The place where the conductivity sharply increased
beneath 313 K appeared right at the interface of the PZT and its
aluminum coat.

It
is important not to jump too swiftly to conclusions. The
measurements of conductivity could have been flawed, or they may not
represent "true" superconductivity. The paper has not
yet been peer reviewed or published in a journal. Given its
impressive claims, and reportedly elementary process to achieve them,
it will likely soon see peer review.

The idea of such a simple
metal mix acting as what is essentially the holy grail of
electronics, certainly sounds too good to be true.

However, if
it does prove to truly be room temperature superconductivity, the
discovery would revolutionize a number of industries including
computing and power transmission. One can only hope that this
discovery -- or one in the near future -- is validated, so we can at
last reap the benefits
of superconductors without special equipment.

Some of
the recent research into superconductors has focused on determining
how they work, in an effort to come up with new designs. To
read more about this, check out our
January 2008 andJuly
2008 pieces on this topic.